[goldstategop]

Tom, I don't give a damn what the rest of the world thinks. They can either get along with us or they can go to hell.

[jern]

Good read, thanks for the post.

[rellimpank]

yup--and most of the dislike is simple jealousy--

[CyberAnt]

Exactly ... and I'm not going to comment on this article because I don't care to contribute to his children's education.

[ontos-on]

Friedman is foolishly determined not to see that it was America's objective, set by the Reagan administration, to be totally dominant militarily in order to win the cold War, that placed the US so far beyond the USSR and, naturally, all the other countries. Friedman will underestimate military might every day of the week and twice on Sunday. He pretends that it is only a question of choice by other countries as to why we arent challenged militarily. This is nonesense.

Damn straight we are benign. But Friedman also wants to underestimate this hegemonic fact about the US. We are the greatest force for good in the world. Strong and reliable. Despite all our errors that make us less strong than we could be,[eg. indulgence of illegal invasion of our borders], we are the strongest and the best. American goodness is not something Friedman wants to admit.

Mainly this is because he believes American exceptionalism is naive. Au contraire, it is the truth.